Technical Field of the Disclosure
The present invention relates in general to bathroom accessories commonly known as shelf support structures. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a shelf support structure with a revolutionary new mounting system.
Description of the Related Art
There are a wide variety of devices for storing personal care products, such as soap, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, toothbrushes, razors, washcloths, etc., particularly in showers and baths. These devices are most commonly referred to as shower caddies. Some are configured to fasten directly to the walls of bathtubs and shower stalls, while others are configured to hang from the neck/pipe of a showerhead.
While each of these caddies is functional, they each have major drawbacks. Fastening a shelf to a shower wall requires either the drilling of the walls or the use of some sort of adhesive tape or suction cups. Most homeowners and renters are reluctant to or forbidden to drill holes into the walls of the bath or shower, and adhesive tape and suction cups do not support much weight before losing their grip. As most home owners can attest to, liquid and moisture seeping behind a shower can cause extensive damage, and drilling holes in the otherwise generally impermeable shower wall can be a cause of this.
Existing prior art discloses a shelf support structure that hangs from the neck of the showerhead and hence does not require the destructive drilling of the wall. This form of prior art has an even bigger problem; it is limited in size and capacity due to tilting. The drawback of the neck supported caddy is that it has only a single mounting point, which results in the weight on one side often exceeding the weight on the other side such that the caddy rotates about the neck pipe causing the caddy to tilt, regardless of the griping power around the neck. Even with the use of suction cups, there is still a limit to how much a “single-point-supported” caddy can hold before the suction cups slip, causing the shelf's contents to slide to the lowest side, spill over the edge and fall onto the floor. It is both potentially frustrating and dangerous to the user to have objects falling onto bare feet or on a potentially slippery surface. Because of this single point design, there is a practical limitation to the amount of content the caddies can hold. With the ever-increasing number of personal care products on the market today, the average family is finding the capacity of today's shelf support structure to be significantly insufficient. Furthermore, since there is typically only a single shower neck per shower or bath, any given shower or bath can contain only a single caddy. These and other deficiencies are addressed by the present invention.
Other existing prior art discloses openings in the shelves to allow product dispensers/containers to be stored upside-down to allow draining to the opening side of the dispensers/containers. In today's market, however, there are a vast variety of dispenser/container designs with a variety of different lids and openings. Further, an increasing segment of the market sells dispensers/containers for the personal care products that either do not fit in or slip out of the openings. Moreover, rendering the overall versatility of this design to be very limiting.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved shelf support structure for holding shower or bath products that would provide nearly unlimited weight capacity and greatly improved stability. Such a needed shelf support structure would provide a locking mechanism that prevents it from accidentally slipping off its mounting point. Such a needed shelf support structure would provide a design, which is suitable for facile mounting, and allows for the removal for the purpose of cleaning. The present embodiment accomplishes these objectives.